


A Hospital Conversation

by justabitofdevineintervention



Series: Newsies One-Shots [3]
Category: Newsies (1992), Newsies - All Media Types, Newsies!: the Musical - Fierstein/Menken
Genre: Character Death, F/F, Ghosts, Hospitals, I wrote this for school, POV First Person, Past Character Death, Spot is very vaguely mentioned at the end, Talking To Dead People, i reccomend listening to What Would I Do while reading this if you want a particularly sad time, implied eating disorder, its not really ANGST per se, just more sad, yes i wrote fanfiction for a school assesment
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-03
Updated: 2020-11-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:55:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 853
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26851786
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/justabitofdevineintervention/pseuds/justabitofdevineintervention
Summary: “Do you regret it?” She asks. The silver edge in her voice is gone, and this is a side of her that I saw only a few times. A side that feels overwhelmed by hopelessness, a side that is being crushed by the sheer weight of the world. “Loving a dying girl? Loving me?”“Never.” It’s almost as though the steel has gone form her voice to mine. I’ve never been so certain of something in my life. “I’d do it again. And again, and again, and again, until the end of time. Nothing could ever make me regret loving you."-------------------Sarah and Katherine talk.
Relationships: Sarah Jacobs/Katherine Plumber Pulitzer
Series: Newsies One-Shots [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1976281
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	A Hospital Conversation

I stare at the bed. There are no signs that anyone was ever there, the bed neatly made and the pale blue sheets perfectly flat. The uneaten food that had sat by her elbow everyday has been taken away. The room is clean, impersonal, the ‘Get Well Soon!’ cards, and the teddy bears and the flowers she’d collected over the last few weeks having all disappeared.

There is no sign of her.

I’m not sure when I dropped to my knees, or when the tears started rolling down my cheeks.

“Ma’am?” I don’t turn around, but I recognise the voice of her nurse. “I’m afraid I have to ask you to leave in a few minutes.” There’s a moment of silence, and then he adds, “And I’m very sorry. I really am.” The swish of his coat and the subsequent silence tells me that he’s left me alone once more.

I draw a shaky breath, biting my lip so hard that my mouth fills with the metallic taste of blood. I am all cried out, now.

I cast one last look at the room, my eyes sweeping over the empty bed, the bare table and the plain walls. My gaze lingered on the bed one last time.

I could still see her there. Far too thin, like a living skeleton. Her hair, loose around her shoulders, thin and brown. Throughout her life, she had been immaculate, even when messy. Seeing her in a state like this, so weak and fragile almost breaks my heart all over again.

“Sarah,” I breathe. I don’t expect a reply, of course, but she says something anyway. She never was one to follow others expectations.

“Love,” she says, softly. Her voice is how I remember it, overflowing with kindness and flowing like water, with a steel edge that could kill you in a moment, if she wanted.

“Sarah,” I repeat. I stumble forwards, and it takes all my energy not to collapse into her arms. “I miss you.”

She laughs a sad laugh, the sort of laugh you laugh when you’re trying not to cry. “I’ve only been gone an hour.”

“Only?” I laugh too now, through the tears that have started to fall again. “It feels as though you’ve been gone a hundred years.”

Sarah smiles gently. She reaches out with her hand, as though to tuck my hair behind my ear - a familiar gesture she would use to comfort me - but she pulls back at the last second. We are so close, and yet we can both feel the distance of death between us.

There’s a beat, where we both just look at each other.

“I love you,” I say, my voice broken and desperate. “I love you. I love you, so much.”

“I love you too.” There are tears shining in Sarah’s eyes, and suddenly I want nothing more than to envelope her in my arms one last time.

I’d give anything to have another hour with her. One hour more. One hour to tell her everything I never got to. One hour to hold her, and for her to hold me. Just one is all that I would ask for.

“Do you regret it?” Sarah asks. The silver edge in her voice is gone, and this is a side of her that I saw only a few times. A side that feels overwhelmed by hopelessness, a side that is being crushed by the sheer weight of the world. “Loving a dying girl? Loving me?”

“Never.” It’s almost as though the steel has gone form her voice to mine. I’ve never been so certain of something in my life. “I’d do it again. And again, and again, and again, until the end of time. Nothing could ever make me regret loving you, Sarah.”

“Thank you.” Sarah reaches up to my face, her hand hovering over my cheek. The air is ice-cold and slightly damp, like a dewy lawn in the early hours of the dawn. “Thank you, Katherine. For everything.” And somehow, I know that she doesn’t just mean the hospital visits, and the flowers and the chocolates.

“Thank you for loving me,” I say.

“It was my honour,” she says.

When she leaves, it isn’t slow. One moment she is there, and she is looking at me with so much love in her eyes, and then the next I’m facing an empty bed. I run my hands over where Sarah had been sat, tears dripping onto the blankets and leaving small, wet circles.

I whisper her name one more time, before taking a long breath.

I don’t look back as I leave, the tears still flowing steadily down my face.

* * *

I hover somewhere between Earth and the Afterlife. I watch as Katherine sinks into Sean’s arms outside my room, and as they both crumpled.

Every cell in my body is burning with the want to go to her, but I can’t.

The scene gets smaller as I rise, but the image remains steadily in my head.

A small smile drifts across my face. It was truly an honour of mine to have loved her.


End file.
